It’s probably a surprise that James Maddison recorded the highest score of the gameweek last weekend. In what can only be described as a demolition of the reigning champions, who are going through an unprecedented form dip at the moment, Spurs beat Manchester City 0-4 at the Etihad and Maddison was one of the big men for the visitors. Within 20 minutes, the England international had a brace to his name, scoring the 0-1 and 0-2, and bringing the roughly 7% who owned him a fantastic 16 FPL points.
Including the 4-1 defeat at the hands of Sporting Lisbon and the 3-3 draw with Feyenoord at home (after leading 3-0 in the 75th minute) in the Champions League, Man City are now five games without a win, and in Gameweek 13, they’ve got a visit to Anfield coming up. It is, of course, still very early in the season, but considering the current 8-point gap between leaders Liverpool and 2nd placed Man City, we might carefully call this an all-or-nothing encounter for the Cityzens.
Liverpool v Man City is obviously the clash of the weekend for the neutral fans, but there is much more on offer for the fantasy managers amongst us. The GW13 opener between Brighton and Southampton, for example, should attract plenty of interest, as should Brentford (i.e. Bryan Mbeumo) at home to Leicester City and the surprise of the season so far Nottingham Forest at home to Ipswich Town, both on Saturday. On Sunday, Chelsea are hosting Aston Villa, Manchester United play at home against Everton and Spurs, coming off their impressive victory over Man City, welcome Fulham to North London.
Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 13 is set at 18h30 (UK time) on Friday, November 29th, 2024. The free to play FPL or pay to play season/weekend/daily games like FanTeam are ideal ways of following the Premier League action.
Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per November 27th, 2024)
| TRANSFERS OUT | TRANSFERS IN | POSSIBLE REASONS | |
| GK | Ederson (MCI), Martinez (AST), Sanchez (BRI) | Raya (ARS), Onana (MUN), Fabianski (WHU) | |
| DEF | Gvardiol (MCI), Alexander-Arnold (LIV), Lewis (MCI) | Porro (TOT), Gabriel (ARS), Ait-Nouri (WOL) | Porro two attacking returns in a row, |
| MID | Diaz (LIV), Semenyo (BOU), Smith Rowe (FUL) | Saka (ARS), Salah (LIV), Maddison (TOT) | Salah form, Maddison + Saka hauled in GW12, Semenyo suspension |
| FOR | Haaland (MCI), Raul (FUL), Welbeck (BRI) | Cunha (WOL), Pedro (BRI), Jackson (CHE) | Cunha and Pedro form + fixtures, Haaland lack of returns |
Premium pick
“Well, we are almost in December and I haven’t received any offers yet to stay in the club. I’m probably more out than in”. Those were the words that dominated Scoucer media after Liverpool’s 2-3 Gameweek 12 victory over Southampton, spoken by none other than Mohamed Salah (£13.1m). Of course, we don’t know what’s playing behind the scenes at Anfield and we assume the management there will do everything possible to keep their star player at home, but it does seem unusual for a club to leave their talisman in uncertainty like that. It doesn’t seem to be affecting his performances though, as he is currently head and shoulders above any other player in the official fantasy game. Ten goals and 6 assists from twelve league starts have resulted in 120 FPL points, with Chelsea’s Cole Palmer closest behind him with 86 FPL points. In other words, if there is any player who can further immerse Manchester City in crisis, it’s Salah, when the Cityzens visit Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
Non-premium pick
With a home game against Leicester on the cards for Gameweek 13, we would ordinarily recommend Bryan Mbeumo as our recommended non-premium fantasy pick, but we have decided against that due to Brentford’s tough run of fixtures up until Gameweek 19. So instead, we have opted for the early-replacement move of the Cameroonian that millions of managers will likely need to make after Gameweek 13. Thanks to a very kind upcoming schedule on paper, our choice is Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma (£6.4m), who is starting a run of seven appealing fixtures with a home game against Southampton on Friday. The Japanese winger got his second goal of the season last weekend at Bournemouth, bringing his totals for the season so far to 2 goals and 3 assists in 11 Premier League starts. On top of that, if you are one of the managers who would consider this move to replace Mbeumo, it’s also more than worth noting that it will free up a lovely £1.5m for your budget as a bonus.
The budget enabler
If Mitoma is not on your mind, but you do feel like investing in a Brighton asset to get in on their appealing run of upcoming fixtures, Georginio Rutter (£5.6m) looks great. Despite having worked himself into the starting eleven back in Gameweek 3, and scoring 2 goals and providing 4 assists since then, the 22-year-old has largely been flying under the radar so far. Those are excellent numbers for a £5.6m midfielder, but Rutter still sits in just 1.7% of all squads at the time of writing. As a matter of fact, striker Danny Welbeck (66) and the previously mentioned Kaoru Mitoma (47) are the only Brighton players to record more FPL points than Rutter’s 45 although talisman forward Jao Pedro has only recently returned from injury and is another option. The Frenchman also combines a promising run of fixtures with great current form, as he has blanked only twice since his goal at Stamford Bridge back in Gameweek 6. If you need to free up some budget, Rutter is your man, and if you’re doing good budget-wise, we recommend putting him high up on your scouting list for Gameweek 13 and beyond.
The differential
We recommended Martin Odegaard (£8.2m) as a stand-out differential fantasy pick last week and we are repeating that pick for Gameweek 13. The Norwegian playmaker and Arsenal captain missed about two months of Premier League action due to injury and came back into the Gunners’ starting eleven in Gameweek 11, where he immediately delivered the assist for the only goal against Chelsea in a 1-1 draw. Odegaard then repeated that feat last weekend for Arsenal’s 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest as he set up the opening goal by Bukayo Saka. Up next are West Ham away, where we would not be surprised to see the Norwegian midfielder make it three consecutive Premier League games with at least one attacking return. The Hammers have already conceded 19 goals this season and their start to the 2024-2025 campaign has been underwhelming to say the least, with a 14th place after twelve games. Odegaard is also a nice fantasy pick on the longer term, as Arsenal are facing Man United (home), Fulham (away), Everton (home), Crystal Palace (away) and Ipswich Town (home) after Gameweek 13.
The (vice-)captaincy
Liverpool are playing against the reigning champions Manchester City on Sunday, but the combination of Mo Salah’s form this season and Man City’s crisis at the moment makes us confident to put the armband on the Egyptian’s arm.
Decent alternatives for the captaincy in Gameweek 13 are Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo at home to Leicester City on Saturday afternoon, Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood at home to Ipswich Town at the same time, and Chelsea’s Cole Palmer at home to Aston on Sunday. Wolves forward Matheus Cunha at home to Bournemouth is our differential captaincy shout for GW13.
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